Well, this is quite the interesting turn of events. Nikon seems to have been struggling the last few years since Sony’s mirrorless domination began. Their latest annual financial report, however, paints a different story. Although overall income was down 4.3%, it shows a whopping 776% increase in profits over the previous 12 month period.
Nikon’s imaging division accounts or 76.2% of that increase over the previous year. The D850 has driven much of that increase, and the company says that it will continue to focus on high-end cameras. It would have made more if not for a loss it made trying to push point & shoot compacts.
For digital camera-interchangeable lens type, there was an overall fall in unit sales, but sales of the D850, a digital SLR camera, which optimizes the combination of high resolution and high-speed performance, were strong, which boosted the sales of high-class cameras significantly.
For compact digital cameras, efforts were made on the sales of high value-added products such as the high-performance outdoor model COOLPIX W300, but amidst the shrinking market, unit sales fell significantly.
As a result, revenue for the Imaging Products Business decreased by 5.8% year on year to 360,703 million yen. Operating profit, however, rose by 76.2% year on year to 30,222 million yen due to the efforts to improve profitability through the restructuring, such as the shift to a business strategy of selection and concentration and the discontinuation of operations of Nikon Imaging (China) Co., Ltd., a manufacturing consolidated subsidiary.
– Nikon Financial Report
Although the imaging division didn’t account for all, or even the majority of that 776% increase in overall profits, a 76.2% increase is still significant.
Hopefully this means that Nikon will push more higher end kit, and hopefully, we’ll see that full frame mirrorless announced soon.
You can read the complete report here.
